The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-06-11
the original having both meanings.
This isRbeautiful.

the original having both meanings.
This issbeautiful.
But since 1 have got little insight
into this system, | find its beauties de-
velop more and more. HE that en-
dureth to the end, the same shall be
saved" Saved with temporal saliva
tion at the end of the age, and an eter-
nal salvation at the end of the world.
And we all know that saved" may
have both meanings. Nor is this all.
This generation has the meaning of trace
of people, )" it is said, as well as genera
ton. The first of these relates to the
end of the world; the last to the end of
the age. No doubt, much more of the
language may help to support this the
ory.
But one thing perplexes US. If the
doctrine of a future general judgment
is SO important, and its moral influence
SO salutary, as is claimed by its advo-
Gates, why was it necessary to obscure
its features, by mixing it with some
thing else Of comparatively little mo-
ment. Is there not considerable danger
that all the passage will be understood
as relating to the lesser event, and as
having been fulfilled long ago, namely,
at the end of the Jewish age; and all
the influence of the greater event be
lost =? Two events so combined as to
make it 'almost impossible to disen-
tangle them," may very naturally be
taken as only one event-the greater
being absorbed by the lesser, and refer
red to the same period.
This is not only a danger, but it has
been done by some of the best scholars
in Christendom. They see but one
event in these chapters, and this is the
destruction of Jerusalem, long since
passed. If our author has a correct
view of this subject, the purpose of
Jesus has met with signal defeat.
This is not strange, for the practice OF
concealment was opposed to his own
maxims. Then we should consider that
much of this passage applies to the de-
struction of Jerusalem, and to no other
event. Add to this circumstance, that
no language is used in all this discourse
that has not it's parallel in other parts
of the Bible, where temporal events are
alone referred to. These circumstances
are decisive in proof that only one event
is referred to, and that this is the over
throw of the Jews, and the destruction
of their capital city.
Though some of the terms here en-
ployed have different meanings in diff
ferent places, in the same place, they
can have but one meaning. The words,
lend of the age' cannot at the same
time, and in the same place, mean lend
of the world" When the revisers place
world in the text, and age in the mar
gin, it was not their intention to say
that the term had both meanings in
this passage. Similar remarks apply to
other words of doubtful import in these
chapters.
The theory we are exposing, instead
of being one of double meaning, had
better be called the theory of double
dealing. Such scheme is unworthy of
him who said, ''Let your yea be yea,
and your nay nay for whatever is
more than these cometh Of evil" or of
the evil one.
The theory under examination is
adopted only by one class Of interpre-
ters, and for one purpose only-to sus-
tain a theology that had its origin in
the darkest days of the church, but is
now being discarded, as unworthy the
age in which we live. 1t must go down.
All such attempts as we are noticing,
to prop it up, are worse than useless.
They bring dishonor on those who en-
ploy them. Perhaps we should not
blame drowning man for catching at
straw, so long as there is nothing more
substantial within his reach. 1t is not
pretended that Jesus adopted this
method in any other place in the gos-
pels. 1t is more than probable that
this is not an exception to his other
method.
1t is humiliating to know that men
who stand high in the church-men who
are honored as learned in divine things
will resort to such frivolous devices,
not to call them by any worse name, to
sustain sinking cause.
SUMMER WORSHIP.